WatchGirlsPlay
GirlsPlay, or WatchGirlsPlay, is a YouTube channel based in Oregon, USA. The channel was created on January 17th, 2013 and focuses on gaming from a female perspective. They uploaded their first video on March 20th, 2013. The channel would later expand into doing other activities such as React videos and livestreaming on Twitch. History :For a date by date timeline of the history of WatchGirlsPlay, see Timeline of WatchGirlsPlay. Channel history The channel began on January 17th, 2013 and originally consisted of Amber, Ceccelia, Kelli, Stacy, Mariya, Renae, and Sydney. All seven were work colleagues prior to WatchGirlsPlay when another colleague suggested that they start a gaming channel. The channel started out by playing independent game titles, mostly horror games, and still does so today. Whilst they mostly play flash games or games on Steam, they have played console games. The girls later branched out into doing Challenges, Karaokes, and much more. As time went on, girls began to leave the channel, with the group bringing in new girls to replace them. Kaylee and Andrea were among the first new girls to be introduced to the channel. The girls began Livestreams on May 9th, 2015. The livestreams initially took place on the weekends, but this changed to throughout a month. During the livestreams, the girls play various games and chat with the fans. The appearance and location of the channel's studio changed over time as well. From 2013 to late 2014, the girls shot their videos in a bedroom which was surrounded by an orange wall with the WatchGirlsPlay logo in the corner. The girls then changed the appearance of the bedroom in late 2014, as the walls were now black with a chalkboard in the middle of the wall. The girls would often write or draw random things on the chalkboard. In mid 2015, the studio moved to Mackenzie's garage, which was covered with padded walls. In late 2015, the girls announced that they were moving to a new studio and were planning to shoot in the new studio by November. They revealed in their December 13th livestream that they had encountered a problem whilst moving to their new studio, so they had to move to another new studio. They finally moved and begun filming in their new studio on January 1st, 2016. On January 28th, 2016, they received the silver YouTube button for surpassing 100,000 subscribers. On that same day, the girls did their first podcast interview, which was uploaded on February 10th. On March 11th, 2016, the channel received a verification checkmark on YouTube. They also attended Emerald City Comic-con in Seattle, Washington on April 9th, 2016 and met with some fans. On an April 11th, 2016 livestream, Mariya announced that she has made GirlsPlay her full time job while also announcing that she's moving to California to live with her husband. While she won't depart from the channel, but she will fly to Oregon once a month to film for the channel. On an June, 2016 livestream, Renae made a guest appearance on the channel, much to the excitement of fans. The channel would then officially announce Renae's full return on August 5th, 2016. The girls revealed that they have made a second studio in the same building as the new studio in September, 2016. The girls explain that this allows them to livestream and film videos at the same time. The channel has also given away merchandise, such as t-shirts and socks. They also do giveaways on their livestreams, usually given to their Twitch subscribers. They also gained self branded t-shirt that were made by Steven Chung for each individual girl. On August 31st, 2017, the channel created a patreon which allows fans to donate for exclusive content. Video history The channel originally uploaded videos weekly before uploading sporadically. They soon settled on a Monday, Thursday, and Friday schedule, however, they never set certain videos on certain dates. Later on, they began uploading on all five days of the week. They rarely upload more than one video per day. Originally, Woman Crush Wednesday was scheduled for every Wednesday of the week, until its end. Other videos were uploaded at random, with solo plays uploaded on every Tuesday of the week. For some time, they uploaded at least two solo plays per week, usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays and alternate between React and Gaming videos on Mondays and Fridays. AFK videos were usually uploaded on Wednesdays. They also uploaded livestream videos on occasions, with livestream videos edited by Steven Chung being uploaded on Sundays. The channel currently have a schedule of Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday with not specific videos uploaded on specific days. The amount of girls playing a game varies from video to video, but four girls is the usual minimum. Three girls playing a game rarely happens. Non-gaming videos usually have all girls in the videos with a minimum of two or, on a rare occasion, one. Early videos initially had captions during the video and had a questions segment during the end of the video. The questions asked were generally about the girls's feelings towards the game and how much they rated it. Who asked the questions remains unknown. The two were eventually phased out. The channel also censored out any swearing or inappropriate comments made by the girls, with the mouth being blurred out in the earlier videos. Later down the line, the channel slowly began leaving the swearing uncensored before they decided to permanently leave swearing uncensored. This was done due to the amount of time it would take for them to censor out all the swearing, so they decide to leave the swearing uncensored. A majority of the music used by the channel originated from TeknoAXE.com. They then begun using Hope by Tobu as their outtro music. They then began using a wide variety of songs from an unknown source, alongside Tobu's Hope. On October 2016, the channel retired Tobu's Hope as the outtro music and begun using Button Masher by Ross Bugden. By mid 2017, the channel returned to using TeknoAXE's Nobody's Fool Tonight as the outro music and have ceased having an message at the end of the video. In the same month, the girls began recording messages for the outro, which is a general thank you message. Initially, it was an audio message with the usual suggested video outro before changing to having footage of a girl saying the message. The setup and angle for the channel's videos have changed from the early days. Initially, the girls were filmed to the side and more of the room could be seen. It was around late 2014 that the setup and angle was changed to the more familiar face shot with only the wall behind the girls being visible. The gaming footage always appears on the right of screen. Initially, it was a small box before getting slightly bigger as time went on. This later changed as the gameplay footage covers almost all of the screen, with a small section for the girls' footage. Fan Interaction One of the defining things about the channel is their interaction with the fans. The girls will always try to comment back to YouTube comments or tweets by fans. They have repeatedly mentioned many times about how grateful they are for the fans and their support. Some of the fans are really close with the girls, as seen in their casual twitter conversations or livestream chats. The girls are always open for fan questions, sometimes tweeting out the #AskWGP tag for the fans to ask questions. Fans also tend to combine names together whenever the girls do a co-op video or team up in a livestream, usually the names of two girls are combined, but the fans can get creative and make a combined name for three, or even all, of the girls. Some fans even got the privilege to be part of the channel in some capacity, Steven Chung was asked to edit some of the channel's livestream video, while Mitchie was flown over to Oregon to make a special appearance. Other fans have also been mentioned among the channel. Trivia *The grouping of Mariya, Sydney, Andrea, Mackenzie, Mars, Maddie, and Stephanie lasted the longest, lasting at 180 videos. *The grouping of Mariya, Renae, Sydney, Andrea, Mackenzie, Mars, Maddie, and Stephanie was the largest grouping the channel had, with eight members. *The above grouping was matched in the react video TRANSformers, differing only in that Molly substituted for Mars. *The longest video on the channel is the second Friday the 13th livestream video, lasting 9 hours and 42 minutes. References External Links * Website * Instagram * Facebook Category:WatchGirlsPlay